Where Do Tree Frogs Come From?

A tree frog is any species of frog that spends a major portion of its lifespan in trees, known as an arboreal state. Several lineages of frogs among the Neobatrachia have given rise to tree frogs, although they are not closely related to each other.

Many millions of years of convergent evolution have resulted in almost identical morphology and ecologies. They are so similar as regards their ecological niche that in one biome where one group of tree frogs occurs, the other is almost always absent. The last common ancestor of some such tree frog groups lived long before the extinction of the dinosaurs

As the name implies, these frogs are typically found in trees or other high-growing vegetation. They do not normally descend to the ground, except to mate and spawn, though some build foam nests on leaves and rarely leave the trees at all as adults.

Tree frogs are usually tiny as their weight has to be carried by the branches and twigs in their habitats. While some reach 10 cm (4 in) or more, they are typically smaller and more slender than terrestrial frogs.

They have well-developed small sticky discs at the finger and toe tips; the fingers and toes themselves, as well as the limbs, tend to be rather small, resulting in a superior grasping ability which help them cling to the branches of trees. The genus Chiromantis of the Rhacophoridae is most extreme in this respect: it can oppose two fingers to the other two, resulting in a vise-like grip.

Tree-frogs are found in Europe, North and South America, New Guinea, North Africa, and warm parts of Asia. The best-known European tree frog is less than two inches long. Its Latin name is Hyla arborea. Its color is usually bright green. But tree-frogs can change color even as you watch them. They can become yellow, brown or black.

In North America there are two main types of tree-frog. One is called the spring peeper. It has a shrill piping voice. The other one is known as Hyla versicolor. Versicolor is a Latin word meaning “various colors”. This frog can be gray, green or brown. It has a loud croaking voice.

Content for this question contributed by Albert Apuzzo, resident of Roselle, DuPage County and Cook counties, northeastern Illinois, USA